Man with a van takes cash off minors for smokes, gets them fruit and water instead!

I was filling up the van yesterday and saw 3 young girls asking pretty much everyone who went into the shop, to get them something. I thought it was only a matter of time before somebody did, so why not me? They wanted cigarettes and one girl said they were for her brother who’s 27 and around the corner so I took the money and did some shopping, but sorry girls, I forgot to give you 12c change 🙂

Make sure to watch in HD (bottom right of video player) and of course, watch until the end!

Who would be at fault if two vehicles change to the same lane and collide?

What would happen if the above video ended in two vehicles colliding? From the video you can see I’ve started to change lane before the other driver even indicates, it’s only a matter of milliseconds but if you look at the position the van is facing you’ll see it’s changed from straight on, to a little to the left. The rules of the road state you must give way to somebody who is completing a turn or maneuver so I’d say I’d be in the clear, but it’s a close call and I’m not sure if everyone, in particular an insurance assessor, would see it the same way?

Click for discussion thread on boards.ie!

No claim against me for rear-end case!

So following on from my previous post where I rear-ended a brand new 2012 Toyota Avensis, a collision where in the vast, vast majority of cases, the driver behind is to blame, the eventual outcome was in my favour. Although I strongly believed the driver in question pulled out far too soon, it was always going to be very difficult for me to prove this, given the nature of the collision itself.

Following on from the initial post, due to the fact I need the van for work, I repaired it immediately with my Ford Transit Mechanic. There was very light damage to my van and it was fixed and back to good for around €100. I met with the claims assessor from my insurance company and gave him a rundown of the events. We met at the scene and went over the details. The other driver, probably on advice from another party, refused to meet him to give her side of the story. I didn’t hear much while the assessor was dealing with the issue and about 2 weeks later an independent assessor whose job is to assess the vehicles to determine the point of impact, position etc, met with me and gave the van a look over. He said that due to the point of impact it would be difficult to prove my case and in order for proper readings of road conditions (such as rain) to be determined, it would have been necessary to close the road. Otherwise such claims wouldn’t stand up in court.

I spoke to the assessor from my own insurance company again and said how I didn’t want to accept liability. That accepting liability was accepting that I was a higher risk to my insurance company and would be met with years of increased premiums as a result, along with my license and driving history being tarnished. He spoke of what the independent assessor advised them and I was adamant to not take the blame on this. He said he would look into it further and be in touch.

About 2 months passed without me hearing anything. My renewal was approaching and I got a shock when I saw the renewal letter. A premium increase of around 52% and a claim against my policy for about €8,000! I got in touch with my claims assessor immediately who assured me that the case is still open and this is the standard renewal process with an open claim. That they charge you for it as if it went against you and then if you happen to win, they will refund you or charge less for the remainder of the policy based on no claims.

The assessor didn’t realise the renewal date was imminent so told me he would chase it up again. I reminded him again that I did not want to accept liability and was willing to take it further. A cost neither insurance company would want to risk and considering there were no personal injury claims with this case, it was a relatively small amount compared to what some cases can be.

A few days later I picked up the phone and it was my claims assessor again, this time giving me the good news that the third party insurance company has decided to take responsibility for the cost of damage to the vehicle and there was therefore no claim against me. That was it, no more had to be done, over and done with very quickly. I’ve since renewed my policy at the same price as last year and continue to have no claims against the policy.

This started off as an almost impossible task to prove but has thankfully and I believe justifiably worked out in my favour.

Be careful who you choose to teach you to drive!

I spotted this driving instructor on the M50 yesterday sitting in the overtaking lane.

I gave him a little flash to see if he’d move and a tiny beep driving by too but he seemed completely oblivious. I know it doesn’t seem like much but this is technically a driving offense and you can be fined and I think even a point or two applied to your license. The unfortunate thing is that if you drive the M50, N7 or any 3 lane road in Ireland, most vehicles are sitting in the middle lane which actually causes a lot of problems further back in terms of progress and I reckon over 95% of people are unaware. Sure driving lessons in Ireland don’t even explore driving on a Motorway so it’s no surprise.

The problem this causes is quite significant, especially when the roads are busy. If there is one driver in the middle lane going significantly slower than the speed limit (I’d consider 10kmph+ to be significantly slower) and if most other drivers are traveling above this speed, then this immediately diminishes the actual driving lane as it’s also illegal to pass on their left (unless slow queuing traffic etc). So the years spent upgrading the M50 and all the tax payers money is not really being utilized as well as it should. The knock on effect of this is great in terms of congestion and this is worsened when for example, a heavy loaded van such as I’d be driving after a home removal is going faster than the driver stuck in the middle lane, but doesn’t have the acceleration to match the speed of the drivers in the outer most overtaking lane. In order to make progress, the van after it was probably in the driving lane  will now have to change lane to the middle lane, wait for an adequate gap to then get into the lane 3 (causing any vehicles approaching from a distance to ease off the accelerator), slowly pass the offending vehicle and then get back into lane 2 and then finally back into the driving lane. By completing this maneuver as traffic is beginning to build up, a lull has been caused and if this repeated (which is will be, by many different drivers, overtaking many different lane 2 drivers) a knock on effect will be caused and will contribute quite substantially to the flow of traffic.

You then of course get drivers getting frustrated and forcing an undertake maneuver to proceed faster so the safety level for all drivers is now of concern. To see a driving instructor from the Road “Safety” Authority sitting in lane 2 doesn’t inspire much confidence.

Also, I’d tend to avoid any driving instructors who don’t use their dipped headlights when they should. I personally always drive with my lights on. It’s just safer, but when it’s raining, cloudy, misty, dusk, dawn, and so many other scenarios, you should definitely have them on and again, I’ve seen countless driving instructors failing to do so, even in torrential rain on motorways when again, as a van driver, all I have to see them in their silver car, is a wing mirror and a look to my blind spot.

Emergency Man With a Van Planning After Blowout!

I had my second sudden blowout yesterday on the way to delivering a load  for a customer. The first one was with the Opel Astra Van which had brand new tyres, the tyre which blew yesterday wasn’t new, but had a huge amount of thread left so wasn’t expected at all. As luck would have it, this journey was the only one I had undertaken in that van without the spare tyre. I had a custom built cage made for the back of the van which carries everything from blankets, to ratchets and of course the spare tyre. It’s positioned at the door of the van so as well as having everything for securing and covering furniture pieces at my hands when loading, it also means that if the spare tyre is needed when the van is full, it will be right there. When loading from their unit in Elephant Storage, it was almost game over in Tetris until I suggested, instead of having to do a 2nd run and it costing the customer more, to take the cage out, keeping it in their unit and I could return for it later.

10 minutes after setting off to Greystones, this happened:

According to the iTronics Dash Camera software, I was travelling 107kmph, quite fast to have a blowout! The tyre was in shreds and now I had to sort out getting the load delivered to the customer and arriving to the next customer with as little disruption as possible to their day. The first thing was of course to get the replacement tyre so instead of having to wait what could be half an hour for a taxi or an hour for the AA (who couldn’t really do anything without a spare tyre) I gave a call to my friend who lived near by. Minda ran to meet him and got a lift to his own car which he could then go back to the storage centre to collect the tyre with and come to me. There was still the problem of a delay for the next customer though.

My brother just happened to ask me for a lend of the van this weekend to move himself, so in the name of efficiency, I called him to see if he was free to do the next job. He was, thankfully, but then I realised I had both sets of keys on me for the other van as I was using both in the morning, yep, me who was stranded at the side of the motorway. So Minda had to go on a quick detour to get my brother to bring him and the spare tyre to me while in the mean time I had to ring my insurance company to do a 24 hour temporary transfer from one of the vehicles to Minda’s car to allow my brother to be able to drive it legally back to collect the other van. After catching some sunshine sitting on the grass they finally arrived, along with another friend who I also called to see if he was around to help, but he just happened to stay the night in my brother’s, so couldn’t help but then got a lift and hopped off at the next exit to go home as my brother turned back around to head for the other van!

So after all that the 2nd job was only delayed by half an hour and of course the delay with the job I was on at the time, but discounts were of course applied. We managed to make it back on time to Elephant Storage 10 minutes before they closed to collect the cage so it all worked out pretty well in the end!

Win an iTronics ITB100HD with VanTasks.ie, Man with a Van and Furniture Removals Dublin, Ireland.

Win a new iTronics ITB-100Hd vehicle blackbox DVR camera worth ~€200 with www.VanTasks.ie

To Qualify…
1) You must have “liked” www.Facebook.com/VanTasks
2) Guess the speed (in KMPH) the van is traveling in the following video (recorded with an ITB-100HD)
3) email us with your answer and a link to your facebook profile to enter.

A winner will be selected by random from all winning entries and notified to claim their prize!

Good luck!

This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook or Twitter. You are providing your information to VanTasks and not to Facebook or Twitter. The information that you provide will only be used by VanTasks and not passed to any third party.

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11.    By entering the competition you agree to accept these terms and conditions.

Painful to Watch: Ambulance behind, red light, what’s your move?

Caught this the other day:

Pretty shocking in my own view, if that was me, I’d be slowly pulling into the oncoming traffic (even though there was absolutely no need and the small car could have just pulled a little left). I know it would technically be breaking the law and breaking a red light, but I think it’s worth it in the case where somebodies life could be in danger due to vital seconds.

Discussion on laws and consequences here.

Painful to Watch: Ambulance behind, red light, what’s your move?

Caught this the other day:

Pretty shocking in my own view, if that was me, I’d be slowly pulling into the oncoming traffic (even though there was absolutely no need and the small car could have just pulled a little left). I know it would technically be breaking the law and breaking a red light, but I think it’s worth it in the case where somebodies life could be in danger due to vital seconds.

Discussion on laws and consequences here.

Is the "rear-ender" always to blame in a traffic collision?

Early Saturday morning saw my first traffic collision (bar the odd bump) and like nearly all rear end collisions, I’ll probably be held fully accountable. But should the blame be all mine? It was a quiet morning and I was on time, driving to my first job. I was overtaking a cyclist and further up the road a woman had her car door open so I stayed towards the centre of the road for a fluid overtake. At the same time, a driver came out from a side road on the left hand side and I jammed on the brakes but slid into their bumper with a thud.

Was I going above the speed limit? I honestly don’t know, I was certainly going a decent speed to overtake the cyclist safely and I definitely believe the other driver shouldn’t have pulled out, but in 99% of rear-end collisions, blame lies with the driver behind so it will be extremely difficult for me to prove otherwise.

I’m not really frustrated over the collisions itself as I don’t believe I’m fully to blame, but what I’m extremely frustrated over is the fact I had video evidence which could have greatly helped my case and it managed to get overwritten! I had only taken delivery of new car black box recorders the day before the collision. These basically record what can be seen from the windscreen and log GPS location and have a G-Sensor built in to monitor shocks and motion. I’ve been using a different model in the vans for the past 2 years or so. I had only briefly explored the software the night I took delivery with footage from the first van I installed the new camera to, which in the time it was in use, drove for 1 hour and parked for 4 hours. The 8GB card included with the unit was only half full. I wasn’t aware it only recorded motion sensed/shocked segments while parked, so really there was probably only 1.5 hours footage recorded to the card, not the 5 I thought. I also bought additional 32GB cards and from reading recording time levels, I remember seeing a 32GB card can hold over 8 hours footage. I mistakenly had it in my head that I’d have more than 8 hours footage before previous footage would be overwritten and thought the footage, since it was a “shock”, wouldn’t even be overwritten, as was the case with the previous unit.

The van which had the crash was installed with an iTronics ITB100HD first thing in the morning before I drove to a job. The previous unit (Xdriven DRS1100) was hardwired in and they use the same voltage and same size connector so I simply replaced it with the new unit. Unfortunately, each unit has a different overwriting system. I had the crash 5 minutes later and as I was on the way to a job, with the above assumptions, let it record as I knew I may be still in a little shock and thought it would be good to have the camera rolling. As my job involves loading the van with furniture etc, every minute the van was parked was pretty much recorded due to the high sensitivity level and customers and I moving around in the cargo bay loading items. After 6 hours I unplugged it as I didn’t want to take any chances. Unfortunately due to my mistakes and misunderstandings of the new unit, it was too late.

Below is a video recorded as I revisited the scene. The car came out just where the green car on the left is protruding.

 

Is the “rear-ender” always to blame in a traffic collision?

Early Saturday morning saw my first traffic collision (bar the odd bump) and like nearly all rear end collisions, I’ll probably be held fully accountable. But should the blame be all mine? It was a quiet morning and I was on time, driving to my first job. I was overtaking a cyclist and further up the road a woman had her car door open so I stayed towards the centre of the road for a fluid overtake. At the same time, a driver came out from a side road on the left hand side and I jammed on the brakes but slid into their bumper with a thud.

Was I going above the speed limit? I honestly don’t know, I was certainly going a decent speed to overtake the cyclist safely and I definitely believe the other driver shouldn’t have pulled out, but in 99% of rear-end collisions, blame lies with the driver behind so it will be extremely difficult for me to prove otherwise.

I’m not really frustrated over the collisions itself as I don’t believe I’m fully to blame, but what I’m extremely frustrated over is the fact I had video evidence which could have greatly helped my case and it managed to get overwritten! I had only taken delivery of new car black box recorders the day before the collision. These basically record what can be seen from the windscreen and log GPS location and have a G-Sensor built in to monitor shocks and motion. I’ve been using a different model in the vans for the past 2 years or so. I had only briefly explored the software the night I took delivery with footage from the first van I installed the new camera to, which in the time it was in use, drove for 1 hour and parked for 4 hours. The 8GB card included with the unit was only half full. I wasn’t aware it only recorded motion sensed/shocked segments while parked, so really there was probably only 1.5 hours footage recorded to the card, not the 5 I thought. I also bought additional 32GB cards and from reading recording time levels, I remember seeing a 32GB card can hold over 8 hours footage. I mistakenly had it in my head that I’d have more than 8 hours footage before previous footage would be overwritten and thought the footage, since it was a “shock”, wouldn’t even be overwritten, as was the case with the previous unit.

The van which had the crash was installed with an iTronics ITB100HD first thing in the morning before I drove to a job. The previous unit (Xdriven DRS1100) was hardwired in and they use the same voltage and same size connector so I simply replaced it with the new unit. Unfortunately, each unit has a different overwriting system. I had the crash 5 minutes later and as I was on the way to a job, with the above assumptions, let it record as I knew I may be still in a little shock and thought it would be good to have the camera rolling. As my job involves loading the van with furniture etc, every minute the van was parked was pretty much recorded due to the high sensitivity level and customers and I moving around in the cargo bay loading items. After 6 hours I unplugged it as I didn’t want to take any chances. Unfortunately due to my mistakes and misunderstandings of the new unit, it was too late.

Below is a video recorded as I revisited the scene. The car came out just where the green car on the left is protruding.

 

When do parking violations cross the line?

pay and display permit

Notice anything wrong with the parking above? I took this photo after a neighbour phoned me to say my car was blocking the entrance to an apartment complex car park. I was on a job at the time and fortunately it was local but I still had to temporarily abandon it to return to move the car, thinking maybe the handbrake wasn’t applied properly and it rolled back a few feet making it impossible for any cars to enter the car park. The lady on the phone was abrupt and hung up before I even finished speaking so I came back quickly.

It sounded like the same lady who rang me one night around 1am complaining that my van was parked outside her window. Bear in mind this is a public road and my van was parked in a regular pay and display area with a valid permit. Driving back I was hoping it didn’t roll back into another car and cause any damage and that I didn’t get a fine but when I arrived back the above photo is what I was met with, just as I had left it. I turned back around, snapped the photo and quickly drove back to the job, only a 15 minute delay thankfully. I didn’t even move the car.

Now there’s absolutely no obstruction caused by the manner in which my car is parked, I could fit my biggest van into the entrance of the car park no bother. I’m not entirely sure of the legalities of part of the vehicle body extending beyond the marked area of parking so I’m going to pop this on boards.ie and try find out!

In-Van Entertainment, Free Giveaway! House Moving Dublin-Ireland-UK-Europe!

Playstation 2, SlimlineSo 4 years ago I had an idea that putting a slimline Playstation 2 and a little screen in the van would be a nice addition to my service, especially on longer trips where I’ve customers in the van with me. This would let them play games and watch DVD’s too! How many times was it put to use and make an impressive impression on my customers? None! 🙁

So I’m giving it away free for anyone who wants it. You get a Slimline Playstation 2 and a little monitor (like the ones you fit to the back seats for the kids). Quality is pretty poor but as my friend says, secondary use is the best form of recycling. Unfortunately I gave away 2 perfectly good remote controllers after having forgotten about the Playstation, just last Saturday, but I have another lying around, although it’s not in the best shape!

Available for collection today in Dun Laoghaire/South Dublin area on a first come, first served basis. Pop me a mail, comment on FaceBook or however else you want to get in touch to claim 🙂

In today’s paper, shocking news for the man with the van!

moving in dublin

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